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Two Oakville councillors on lobbyist registry committee By Tim Foran OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 11 · Friday, January 15, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com OPEN HOUSE DATE: January 18 h J uary 1 th Join us fr from from 7:30 ­ 8:30 pm for a short presentation followed follo ed by a tour of our wonderful school. Finding enough regional councillors to fill positions on Halton Region's multitude of subcommittees is sometimes a laborious process. But there were was no shortage of politicians willing to sit on a sub-committee that will determine whether lobbyists, possibly including developers, businesses competing for contracts, or other organizations, will have to register their contact with council members and staff on a publicly-available website. While both the provincial and federal governments maintain such searchable databases, only the City of Toronto has one at the municipal level in Ontario. On Wednesday, due to strong interest, council's administration and finance (AF) committee recommended including six councillors from all four local municipalities on the sub-committee instead of the four originally envisioned. Regional Chair Gary Carr also sits on all subcommittees. It was the AF committee that almost killed the idea of setting up a lobbyist registry in early September when it voted not to bother exploring the issue. However, regional council rejected that recommendation a week later and instead sided with staff's suggestion that a subcommittee be set up to look at options for the registry. Essentially, the sub-committee is charged with finding out whether a registry is needed, how much it would cost, who constitutes a lobbyist and what they would have to do when they wished to petition regional officials. If approved by council Wednesday, the subcommittee will include Milton Mayor Gord Krantz, Halton Hills Councillor Jane Fogal, Burlington councillors John Taylor and Peter Thoem and Oakville councillors Allan Elgar and Alan Johnston, the man who suggested the need for the controversial lobbyist registry last year. Both Fogal and Krantz voted at the September council session against setting up the sub-committee, while Thoem and Taylor, while not convinced one is necessary, voted to explore the issue. Both Johnston and Elgar are backers of the idea. "I think it's good to have all viewpoints - pro, con, and undecided," said Johnston, when asked what he thought of the proposed makeup of the sub-committee. The councillor is already preparing himself to deal with likely concerns from councillors who question the need for the registry. He has read over Toronto's registry rules and noted it doesn't include non-profit groups as lobbyists. Toronto's registry also doesn't require individual constituents to register when they contact council members and staff on ward issues. People and organizations are, however, required to register contact with city officials for issues on which they stand to gain financially. We W offer full-time and part-time JK & SK and grades 1-8 Oakville, Ontario L6J 7T1 905-829-8048 PUBLIC NOTICE - HEARING AIDS The latest development in hearing aid technology, the Neuro - compensator hearing aid, developed in part at McMaster University, is now available at HEAR RIGHT CANADA 2457 Mount Forest Drive (at Guelph Line) Burlington 905-335-5252 hearrightcanada.ca Renovate · Decorate · Celebrate Time is Precious, Mistakes are Costly and Decorating is complicated. Inquire about your Personal Design Consultation At Fitz by Design we are committed to creating breathtaking, functional spaces that are unique as the individuals living in them.